The Power of The Mastermind - Rock Thomas - Recorded January 3, 2020
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VoiceAmerica 0:04
One problem facing people at many levels of business is how to make time for a work life and a personal life. Do you find that one seems to keep getting in the way of the other? This is the work life balance with Rick Morris. Even if you're not involved in the business world, you'll have a lot to gain by tuning into today's show. Now, here is your host, Rick Morris.
Rick A. Morris 0:26
And welcome to another edition of the work life balance on this Friday afternoon. We're so excited to have you guys around so it's a new year. We're super excited to you know, to kick things off, right for sure. I did want to start today's show, though, with a with a heartfelt thank you. As you know, this, this audience has continued to grow and continue to amaze me. But we had a total we've literally doubled our growth in 2019 which is you know, testament to all of you and I want to Say thank you from from the bottom of my heart for for continuing to support the podcast as we as we move into our fifth year I believe of doing this it's it's super excited to have you guys around and will continue to up level our guests up level our show and and try to bring the best of the work life balance to you and we feel like we're kicking the year off in the right way by doing that basically by the gentleman that that we've got booked today really he's he's a whole life success expertise best selling author he hosts the IM movement podcast, which I was lucky to be able to join him earlier this week for but from fanboy to real estate and business guru mentors self made millionaire this gentleman has studied one on one with the world's best teachers including Tony Robbins, jack Canfield, Wayne Dyer, Robert herjavec. Many many more on his mission to inspire others to create their best life on their terms. After decades learning from the greatest minds on the planet working with coaching that Thousands of people in his workshops and webinars, he's impacted over 100 million lives with his teaching. He has a goal cast video alone that was viewed by over 100 million people. And now he spends time teaching people on how to be financially free and truly happy on their terms, whether they work for themselves or others. He's the founder of the IM movement, and he's known as the man who redefines lives. So we'd love to bring him onto the show right now. How you doing rock Thomas?
Rock Thomas 2:26
Hey, it's great to be here. What an honor to be on your amazing show. And a quite
Rick A. Morris 2:31
possibly one of the coolest names in coaching, just kind of throw that one out as well. I mean, how, how solid your coach Well, my name, his name is a rock. I mean, he's just a rock star. I mean, there's just so many things that we can do with that. I think that we should definitely go down that path. But we you know, we had talked yesterday and I had an opportunity to join you on your podcast, but we discussed today, Tony about the power of the mastermind. And so why don't you go ahead and take a moment just fill in any of the details maybe that I left out in your bio, and Let's start talking and diving right into what is a mastermind and how can people become successful with that format?
Rock Thomas 3:06
Yeah, sure, I think that Jim Rohn made a popular statement of you are the five people that you hang out with. And we both know because reading, thinking Grow Rich is a classic if you're in the personal development space, is a chapter dedicated to the power of the mastermind. It's essentially when two minds come together with a single goal in mind. They can exchange ideas, concepts, perceptions, their experience, and come up with this third mind, that is going to be nothing like the single mind on its own. So eight years ago, when I really started to understand that I the biggest impacts I had in my life was when I hung around people that were smarter than me more energetic than me that had better connections than me that had better ways of managing and investing their money. I purposefully and intentionally sought out people and started to collect people that I could Hanging out with. And then we started to really investigate on what are the best ways that you can spend time together? What are the conversations, the questions, etc. And I went from, you know, successful in real estate to authoring more books to starting my own podcast to getting investments. And starting in thing random things like tax liens and tax deeds and Airbnb, things I never thought that I would get in, invested in because of the power of the impact of being around other people that are making really cool things happen. And that, in essence, is what the mastermind is about.
Rick A. Morris 4:33
Yeah, john says if you're if you're the smartest person in the room, or you're the head of the class, you're in the wrong room, that that you constantly have to surround yourself with people who are smarter, better and, and are achieving the things that you want to achieve.
Rock Thomas 4:46
And if you're a growth based person, which a lot of people are not, and it's not because they don't want to, I think it's because we weren't really taught. A lot of people think school ends when you graduate. In fact, it's an ongoing thing. And we were happy When we're growing and learning, however, we have to face this fear that hey, do I need to be fixed? Because I don't have all the answers or I might not enough because I don't have all the answers. And a lot of people don't want to visit that. So they stay stuck and they fight for the hand that they were dealt, instead of in poker, a lot of people don't, you can, you can hand in a couple of cards, you can make your hand better, you can work on yourself, and you can come at it from a different perspective. And I love that because then I'm always looking for ways to grow and I remain curious and young.
Rick A. Morris 5:31
So we run in a lot of different circles and and when you run in a circle with Tony Robbins or john Maxwell or or some of these people that that we've had the opportunity to meet, they all are growth minded as well. So what what do you think makes somebody have that fear of growth or not really like, you know, there's a lot of people in and we joked yesterday, but you know, I didn't think I needed to coach until I got one. But how do you how do you get people to overcome that fear early on?
Rock Thomas 5:59
Well, I think We talked about a Carol Dweck has a great book called mindset. And it talks about the fixed mindset versus the growth based mindset. And some people are just fearful that they don't have what it takes to become more. And other people recognize that life is all about getting feedback on how you're showing up. And then coming at it from a different way. Being curious, being open, being flexible, instead of fighting for what you already have and thinking that's all you have to work with. When you realize that life is actually about looking for a different way to enjoy it experiencing grow, then you're open and you don't look at it as a failure. You look at it as a learning. And then if you like learning and growing, then taking action becomes second nature, because you're not fearful of failure. So fundamentally it comes down to are you afraid of failure, or you open to learning
Rick A. Morris 6:58
and a failure and learning to go ahead and Are you learn from failure? So it's not it's not being afraid of failure. It's understanding the failures and necessity of life.
Rock Thomas 7:08
It's understanding that failure isn't failure. It's a stepping stone toward the next thing. And that's the part that the fixed mindset individual, the non growth mindset, the person that might work a nine to five and is certainty driven. And they may not be looking at ways to grow, how many people are working at jobs that they don't love. That doesn't make sense. Why would you spend 50% of your life doing something you don't love and not try to find a way to get to a place that you can do stuff that you love? Because you have a fixed mindset? And so the power of the mastermind is sitting around other people kind of like the Roger Bannister story. When you see other people that work at a job like I have this guy who I helped was a CPA. His son had a breathing problem in his and they really were on 24 hour watch. And his dream was to retire his wife so that she could stay home With the sun and take care of him and they didn't have to worry all day long, but something would go wrong. He came into my tribe into my mastermind, we taught him about entrepreneurship. We taught him up the cashflow quadrant, and then we got him involved in Airbnb. He started a few of them. And then he loved it so much after taking another course around sacred gifts, and learning what his gifts were. He learned that gift, he had a gift of teaching. So now he started an online course and teaching people how to do Airbnb. He makes $10,000 a month doing that. He makes about $15,000 a month on his Airbnb, he retired his mom, his wife, and himself. And now he's an entrepreneur and writing a book. And all of that came because he was exposed to a different opportunity, even though he was raised to get a good education, get a good job, and maybe retire one day.
Rick A. Morris 8:50
Yeah, and that's really kind of the stigma that most people are fighting. Now if you look back, even really 50s and 60s that the company you work for you wore like a badge like Once you joined that company, you were never going to leave. And you were known as you know, you're an IBM guy, you're the bank guy. And, and then the 80s came. And we started letting people go because the profit and so people started going away. What about me, like became very protective of the self. Now, it seems like everybody thinks that, you know, they're going to come up with the next great app, they're going to be the next Facebook person or the next Tick Tock or whatever else that's coming out. So there's really a large shift in mentality of things harder to to retain talent and get a company going, what do you say to those people?
Rock Thomas 9:34
Well, I'll say two things. Robert herjavec taught me one thing is you don't get to do your passion until you pay your bills. So all those kids that are down in their mother's basement while they're doing she's doing your laundry and making you a meal, and you're going to be the next YouTube hero. Get a job at McDonald's or Starbucks or cut the lawn or do something and maintain your dignity and your pride. Get off your ass, pardon me and make it happen. The second thing is what Gary Vaynerchuk said Is he says that it I keep somebody for 18 months or for two years, and they do a good job for me and they go on and they create something from the lessons that they learned from me. Good luck to them. And thank you for giving me that time because we are in a cyclical cycle, a throwaway dollar store mentality, and I have to accept that versus resenting it, I embrace it.
Rick A. Morris 10:20
Wow. So we're going to take a break right here but when we come back, I'd love to dive into your m one mastermind and you talked about your tribe and we'll talk about how that was built in in what that really does and how people that are interested can can even join up in in and learn about it. So we're going to take a break right here. We've got rock Thomas on the show today you're listening to Rick Morris the work life balance.
VoiceAmerica 10:44
Are you frustrated with the overall productivity of your project management processes? Do you lack consistency and project delivery? r squared consulting provides end to end services to assist companies of all sizes in realizing and improving the value You have project management. Whether you want to build a project management office, train project managers, or learn how to bring the oversight and governance to your project processes. r squared has tailored best practices to help you in all areas of project management, visit r squared consulting com Are you getting the most out of your project management software. In many cases, it is not the software that is failing, but the implementation limitations or processes surrounding the use of that software. r squared can analyze your current use and help improve your return on investment. Our square can also suggest the best software for your organization and goals and assist in the selection implementation and training. allow our square to ensure that you are getting the value of your investment visit r squared consulting.com today
Rick A. Morris 11:54
from the boardroom to you voice America Business Network.
VoiceAmerica 12:04
You are tuned into the work life balance. To reach Rick Morris or his guests today, we'd love to have you call into the program at 1-866-472-5790. Again, that's 1-866-472-5790 if you'd rather send an email Rick can be reached at har Morris at r squared consulting.com. Now back to the work life balance.
Rick A. Morris 12:30
And welcome back to the work life balance on this Friday afternoon. Always the last thing that I get to do before I start to live my life balance and sharing some time today with rock Thomas and rock you founded a tribe essentially, we're talking about the power of mastermind, but you went out and built a mastermind Talk, talk to the audience a little bit about the tribe how you started it, some of the results that you've seen and how can people find out about
Rock Thomas 12:54
you know, I've tried to start a mastermind several times and getting people to commit and be held accountable. What was the challenge? Cool. It's a good idea. Having them show up on a call and regular basis, I always had an excuse. And eight years ago, I came across some three guys that had been doing it for 12 years and they were looking to expand their tribe. I was looking to expand mine, which was just me on my own. And so we joined forces and would true mastermind we locked ourselves up in a house for two days and we thought, what do we want the tribe to represent? Be do have experience, who do we want to meet, etc. And we agreed with this tagline. We are a tribe of healthy, wealthy, generous people that choose to lead epic lives. And don't apologize for being awesome while grabbing life big. And we do adventurous activities, while helping each other be the best version of ourself. And that was what we lived by and we did things like go kayaking in Norway for 11 days 13 guys and started to build as We talked to different we said, well, who do you know that's a badass that could come and join our tribe. And it went to 33, and then 55, and then 95. And now it's grown to over thousands of people in different categories, depending on what your your needs are. If you're a highly active person, you want to go on the international trips, great. You're a young father or mother with young kids and you want to be more local than you go to some of the more smaller local events, we do about 25 events a year. And the one that I'm currently developing at a high rate because most people aren't millionaires yet is helping people become millionaires and the mindset that's required to become a millionaire, the habits, the rituals, and by bringing them into a room with people that are already street smart millionaires, they get to rub elbows with these people and realize they're not really that much different. They just make different choices a little bit more consistent, and they have access to opportunities that the average person is unaware of.
Rick A. Morris 15:01
And so what's what's some of the favorite or go to stories? if you're if you're talking to somebody and they go, Well, what are the results of a mastermind? Or what are the results of this try?
Rock Thomas 15:10
Well, I became aware of the fact that one of the biggest thing that creates transformation is accountability. If you think about, you know, the Green Berets, or some of these people in the military, they are held accountable, they have no choice, they have to do the 50 pushups, you know, and then sit in the water for an hour and if they don't, they quit, they're out. So they're held literally accountable to push themselves beyond what is comfortable. We our brains seek comfort, familiarity ease, they're efficiently designed that way to keep us alive. But on the other side, the joy that we get from life is on growth and pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zone. So by putting yourself in an environment with other people, that experiences that transformation occurs with one guy for instance, 310 pounds when he joined, he's been overweight his entire life, he runs Iron Men now he's 205 pounds. And he completely transformed based on positive peer pressure, not let allowed to let go of the goals that he designed for himself. So we typically say, hey, Rick, What's your goal? What do you want to achieve in 2020? What is it? Is it? Is it a physical? Is it mental? Is it financial? Do you want to be a better husband, a better brother a better son, you tell me what you want. And then we look for the resources to support you. And every two weeks we get together in groups of six predesigned. We call them pods for an entire year. And we hold each other accountable to do what we say we were going to do. And we found that when those six people are now going to meet 90 days later in a group with 80 or 100 people, and they're also going to share with different people their progress, this peer pressure to belong, to matter. To be an inspiration to other people is what we all want. We all seek that. And so now there's a forum for people to do that people are compelled to do things that they never thought they can do. And that's the magic of the mastermind group.
Rick A. Morris 17:12
Well, yeah, it's tapping into so we if we if we look at Dr. Child Dinis influence the science and practice of persuasion. There's large studies where people will make goals internally, they'll make goals where they write them down. And then they make goals that are public, and active and voluntary. And it's those public active involuntary goals that are that are so much more delivered, because you have also something in your brain that wants you to be consistent. So now that I've actively made this or voluntarily and publicly made this goal, if I don't come through with it, it's more I don't want to let you down my partner than it is letting myself down. And that's really where the power of the mastermind
Rock Thomas 17:54
lives. That's where it grows. Well, simplistically, if you've ever gone to Any kind of a class, a yoga class or, you know, a workout class, try to do yoga for an hour at home on your own. Not very easy. You get distracted, you're not in the mood, you hold the position, it feels awkward, the cat jumps on your back. But go in a group of people to a yoga class and I do yoga regularly. And I probably 20 times in that class. I'm like, I want to get out of this position. And then the teacher goes for more seconds. And I'm like, okay, I can do that. But also the 30 people beside me are doing that. I don't want to stick out like a sore thumb. And I know that going into the class, it's going to be difficult, but that belonging and being part of something, is something that we crave as humans. So like you said before, don't don't be the smartest person in the room. When you're in a room with other smart people and you like the conversation and they're all talking about being a better father or a better investor. Then you're going to step up And that's the key, that's really the key get in a room of people that have the results that you want. And then you will naturally be pulled and gravity will work in reverse order and it will pull you toward that result of being part of that group.
Rick A. Morris 19:16
I think my audience knows that I thrive on transparency so in full transparency one of the biggest things that I've been struggling with is exercise, right? We we mentioned it on your podcast you know yesterday, until they do develop the pill that I can lose 150 pounds by just taking it waking up the next morning then we've got to eat better and exercise but your yoga examples hilarious because I've been trying a bunch of different things and and so I went in depth, got a media room went in there and found one on amazon prime, like 15 minutes I was like, man, I need to be in my office doing stuff. You know, I was absolutely that person who checked out I was like, This is cut my knees hurt. I don't even ever write yoga mat. So,
Rock Thomas 19:54
you know, I was that
Rick A. Morris 19:56
I was out. So it's it's interesting that We use that example. But it's the truth. Like if we go to like an orange theory or something like that we're pushing us, then then we're going to continue to follow through.
Rock Thomas 20:07
So I have some models on that. If I could share, Rick, please. What we discovered in the mastermind group, because I'm come from the School of Tony Robbins is audit everything you do. Every time you do something like a team plays a game, and we're in the playoffs, the football for anybody that follows that is after every game, they look at the videos and they say, what could we what would we do? Well, what can we do better, and then apply that tweak and get better. And Tony does the same thing. And I learned from him. So what we learned is that there's three primary ways that the human spirit gets motivated. Number one is when you're supported, we need to be supported and given resources. Like we are on this call. We struggled a little bit with me getting my mic going, and I was supported by you guys. And that made me feel safe and good. And I apologize and you guys were like, don't worry about it. I was very nicely supportive. Yoga, what happens is the teacher supports you by making sure the room temperature and hey guys lie down in your mat. If you if you can't finish the exercise, it's perfect lie down, do what serves you, so you support it. They also encourage you, hey, there's only three seconds left, you guys are got this, you're doing great, there's 15 minutes left in the entire thing. And then you're going to leave here feeling amazing. Give yourself the gift. So we encourage. And then the last thing is challenge. We want to be challenged as human beings. That's why people run tough mudders and do marathons and play the ridiculous game of golf, the hardest game probably in the world, but we choose to put ourselves in a situation when we're challenged. So we very consciously in our group, say if I'm going to work with you, Rick, and you are struggling, let's say with getting to a place where you want to physically, I'm either going to support you, I'm either going to encourage you or challenge you. And if I love you enough, if I care about you enough, I'm going to pay attention to try to do those in the proper measurements so that you're going to be inspired change. So think about walking into a room where everybody agrees, we don't criticize, we don't complain, we don't blame, we don't make excuses. But instead, you either support encourage or challenge. The culture is different in that room than in any other room that I go into. That's what allows people to have the courage to be vulnerable and say, You know what? I tried yoga for 15 minutes at home, it didn't work. And then somebody's going to say, Yeah, but Rick, are you serious? Like, tell me why you want to get to where you want to go to? What is the reason and help you develop your why even more, and then make some suggestions that might be Oh, you know, I struggled with the same thing. And then I did this. Did you try that? And eventually, people are getting amazing results. And then they want to tell their friends, hey, you should come join this tribe, because it's amazing. And that's what we've experienced.
Unknown Speaker 22:50
And how do people find the tribe?
Rock Thomas 22:53
So you can go to go m one.com. Go g o m one.com. There's an application You can fill it out. And then we have a conversation with you, we usually let about one out of three applicants in because a lot of people are not serious about transformation. Or maybe they don't resonate with us either way, you can go to rock thomas.com and check it out there as well. And we go through a discovery call, we see if there's a fit, we get really, really clear, we spend a lot of time discovering what it is that the person wants to create, or achieve in their life. And then we tell them some of the resources we have and see if there's a fit, and if it resonates, we create a partnership and agreement and then we go at it.
Rick A. Morris 23:35
Outstanding. Well, when we come back, we're going to visit further with you maybe talk about a couple of your books, maybe even share a couple of the rules of success that that you've written about. But we're going to come right back with rock Thomas, listen to Rick Morris on the work life balance.
VoiceAmerica 23:53
Are you frustrated with the overall productivity of your project management processes? Do you lack consistency and project deliver R squared consulting provides end to end services to assist companies of all sizes in realizing and improving the value of project management. Whether you want to build a project management office, train project managers, or learn how to bring the oversight and governance to your project processes r squared has tailored best practices to help you in all areas of project management, visit r squared consulting.com are you getting the most out of your project management software? In many cases, it is not the software that is failing, but the implementation limitations or processes surrounding the use of that software. r squared can analyze your current use and help improve your return on investment. r squared can also suggest the best software for your organization and goals and assist in the selection implementation and training. allow our square to ensure that you are getting the value of your investment, visit r squared consulting.com today
You are tuned into the work life balance to reach Rick Morris or his guest today we'd love to have you call into the program at 1-866-472-5790 again that's 1-866-472-5790 if you'd rather send an email Rick can be reached at our Morris at r squared consulting.com Now back to the work life balance
Rick A. Morris 25:40
and we are back to the work life balance so somehow rock founded an organization that was named the same name right rock Thomas international it's it's interesting that she got that job so rock top is international you founded as well as you know you started this everyone mastermind get several books that are out there. All these are tremendous success. That says something that we should should look up to right you have the power of your identity and your epic life blueprint. But talk to me about that. What's one of the greatest obstacles or something that you felt like you really had to overcome in order to achieve this success?
Rock Thomas 26:15
Well, growing up, I never felt like I deserve to be very successful. I grew up on a farm and I had an identity of a farm boy and a manual labor guy. I worked with goats and two by fours, I built decks, I built fences. And I really thought that for most of my life, it would be, you know, a labor. When my father got cancer. When I was in my late 20s, I was working as a flight attendant in the airlines, and I flew to Australia where he was, and I did that three times in a two year period. And when I came back the last time I lost my job to minus sistent because I was away so much, they decided that she was doing just as good a job as I was, she was paid less and she was a lot cuter than I was. And I was out of a job. So I sued the company, and I ended up after paying my father's bills for the two year period while he was not working and had cancer, and almost a master million dollars at the time, I'd worked really hard. I bought three properties. I was doing what I could. And I now fell all the way back, my marriage fell apart. And I was literally at the age of 30, sitting on my couch about $30,000 in debt at my mom's house. And I was thinking, What am I going to do? And I remember looking at real estate and I walked into an open house and there was somebody who I thought if they can do that, and I can do it, too. I applied to become a realtor. And I was terrible. First year I made one sale. And the reason I did is my identity was this labor that didn't know people I did not have talk I hadn't developed that. Now. I had incredible work ethic and I was very curious. So my mentor taught me got me to go into Dale Carnegie course. He got me to practice speaking and, and how to win friends and influence people. And he really taught me the parts that are missing in my life. And I think for anybody listening to this, you might be great with people, but you don't have the discipline to work hard. We all have a piece that's missing. So take, take it, take the piece that you have and build around it and add to it. Rick mentioned before that things are a skill set. Most people think that things are a talent that are bestowed upon them when the majority of success comes from building your skills. And so for me, I went into real estate and with my mentor, I learned that if I was just willing to be coached, I could get so much better and so I became incredibly curious and incredibly pliable. I just said, Tell me what to do. And I did exactly what he said and went on to make 32 sales the next year 65 and on to 100. And then I bought the company, and I took it from 94 agents to 270 from 300 million in sales to a billion dollars in sales. And every time I was nervous and afraid about the next iteration, I was afraid about speaking to a big group, I was afraid about absorbing another office, I was afraid about, I had to learn how to speak French to French area that is over in Canada. But every time I thought, and this is a part that I think Rick is under utilized by many people is the power of visualization, and visualizing what you want, becoming obsessed about it. And if anybody thinks about something, they have a car, they got the relationship, they're in a degree they got, they probably were obsessed, they probably thought about it talked about it. They worked all night to create it. And if you can get yourself into that space where you're so obsessed about a result where it has to happen, then you will find a way. And that's been one of the gifts as I've been able to use the power of visualization, become obsessed about it, and then to scour the world for resources. And as you know, Your reticular activating system will kick in for you and it will help you find things that will make you get what you want much easier.
Rick A. Morris 30:09
Yeah I 25 years ago I built a dream board and then put something up there that said, you know if if I'm ever wildly successful I could drive a car like this and about six months ago bought that car and it was it was more okay flashy anybody thinks I'm rolling in whatever it was because I put that on 25 years ago, I was going to make that happen. Now, so I went when got my my dream car. You know, it's interesting that you were talking though about, you know, you were at home 30 years old lip balm. And you know, I do a lot of cultural studies and as we look at the the generation that's coming up now, and I'm not bagging on any generation, but it's a generation which we didn't want them to feel loss of. We didn't keep score in games, we everybody got a trophy, everybody was considered special of most of the CEOs that I've met most of the supremely successful people I've met, we've all hit that point where we were 30 years old back at mom's house. And that becomes that driver that says, I don't ever want to feel that way again. Right, which which flips that switch and ourselves. So is that what you kind of attribute to this as well as there's just no way you're ever going to be in that position again?
Rock Thomas 31:20
Yeah, I would agree with that. And I would also say that pain breeds passion. Yeah. The pain that came from me not hearing from my father that he was proud of me. Even on his deathbed, I asked him and he, he said nothing that he could think of it, it ripped a hole in my heart. And I spent a bunch of time trying to prove to him even though he was gone, that I was worthy. That I was something special. I was unique. I think we all want to feel that there's a reason why we're here. What needs to be meaning to life, and meaning comes from emotion. So I started to say to myself if I can create impact, and I can get myself to do things that that most people can't do then at least I'll have some meaning and some purpose and there will be a reason for me to be alive. And then I started to realize that most people are shooting to be average. Most people are just trying to get by and be comfortable. And I started to get significance then from going, you know, what, if I am willing to show up early and stay late if I am willing to be coachable, and I can learn and I can try new things that I can really stand out. And then when you do that long enough, and you fill that in, you stop proving to the world and you start turning back and helping other people become their best, and that is even more fulfilling.
Rick A. Morris 32:40
Oh, without a doubt, right to back to back to the quote. And so we mentioned the goal code goal cast video, but if you haven't done it, I just posted it to my personal Facebook page. So for those of you that follow me on Facebook, you can go see it there. But if you just search rock Thomas gold cast, it'll it'll come up. So go definitely check that out. Something that you just said though, there's a lot of people, though, that are completely happy with settling. That just, they've got kind of the job they want, they don't really want to move up, they've got kind of the car then house they want, they don't really. And that's great. We need a lot of people like that because we need people that are going to help us run our companies and do that kind of stuff. But if you feel that unsettledness that you want more, you want better what's one of your keys of success that that can help drive or start people down that path?
Rock Thomas 33:32
Yeah, so I mean, I wrote a book called your epic life blueprint and I have 10 rules in there. And rule number one is 30 minutes a day of inspiration. And when when we feed ourselves inspiring thoughts, quotes, etc. What is a quote designed to do? It's to give you a new perspective to say you know, that how you do anything is how you do everything, and that standards are everything. So it inspires you. You hear somebody else overcome something that you can relate to And it inspires you. So I always say that if you're not feeding yourself something inspirational, you're probably watching Netflix, you're probably watching somebody else live their life. Maybe you have the name of another man on your back, and you're not in the arena. You are watching the man in the arena, live his life, and you're cheering him on and if that's what you want, that's great. I'm a great sports fan from the aspect of I want to watch greatness so I can learn from it. Watch Tom Brady have three of his receivers go down and still win the Super Bowl, because he can be flexible. He adapts he doesn't play the victim. He looks at it as a challenge. I learned from that. But I want to be the man in the arena. And I think everybody when they're honest with themselves, they want to be the man or the woman in the arena, on their journey, whatever it is. Maybe it's being the best chef, my girlfriend is a chef and she pours love into her meals and you can feel it. It's amazing. Other people maybe they want to be you know somebody that teaches music. glasses, whatever it is, it doesn't have to be, you know, putting wells in Africa and, and and providing water for people. It could be something very simple making a lot little difference in somebody's life. Think about my mentor. He was running a real estate office, he was a CPA, and he took me under his wing. He said, kid, I see greatness in you. And maybe for the first time in my life, Rick, because my father didn't say it. My all my father always said you're not enough, do it better, you can do a better job. Now it drove me for sure. But for some people, it'll drive them to depression and it'll drive them down. But somehow I found the wherewithal to keep on fighting. And then this guy came along he says, I see.
Rick A. Morris 35:42
Yeah, I love you mentioned the name on the back is I work with a lot of sports teams. And when they obviously say hey, you want to Jersey City, as long as it's my name and number on the back. I'll accept.
Unknown Speaker 35:52
And that's the vibe. You
Rick A. Morris 35:54
know, I've got to add Moore's law. I'm not gonna wear Brady that like huge sports fan, but I'm not gonna wear Peyton Manning's jersey. It's my jersey. I want to come on now. But it's funny that you say that because it's just one of these little idiosyncrasies that I have. But I was like, Well, if I'm gonna have a jersey, the team is going to be my name on the back.
Rock Thomas 36:13
You're gonna let your life not somebody else's life.
Rick A. Morris 36:16
And so when you when you talk about what's so I'll drop one of my favorite little apps around inspiration. I don't know what you if you have a morning routine that maybe you can share with us like I like to do headspace in the morning. do little 10 minutes 15 minutes of meditation and there's a great app called pep talk, which is it's like pump up music but it's motivational speakers I get my music in I get that little inspiration kick and what are what are some of your little tricks and we got about three minutes to break. I'll give you two real
Rock Thomas 36:41
quick is I record I've recorded a five minute I am statement. That is the most important things to me. So I am gifted, guided, grateful, powerful, passionate, playful. I am an inspiration. I'm a gladiator. I'm somebody who defies the odds and raises my standards and steps up into my own personal greatness every day I'm moving closer and closer towards what I want. So it goes on for five minutes. And all the important areas of my life, how to be a better father, a better son a better, more more patient, etc. So it's a whole description and I listened to it with music on my phone. The second thing that I've started about two months ago is something called laughing yoga. So I get up and I laugh for a minute or two every morning. And the the benefits for you physiologically are incredible. The people that have been teaching laughing yoga, have not been sick for 20 years. So for me, it's very simple is it exercises your core exercises your body and it puts you in a state of joy? Yeah, and a lot of people like well, you were you gonna fake laugh? Yes. Wow. Have you ever been around somebody that laughs so so much at something silly and you're at first you don't you like you're not gonna bother. But after a while you just start with laughing because they're laughing so much. Well that's what happens to me I start laughing in the morning and then I start laughing at my laughing and so that those two things are part of my rituals amongst exercise as well.
Rick A. Morris 38:12
Yeah, that's I love to laugh and I'm the one that generally will laugh too long. And then I'll laugh so loud that I got back up the show because I missed the next line because it's just killing me and then I started anticipating the line start laughing before it even dropped so definitely that that person I love to love to get tickled and laugh In fact, I was just reviewing one of my other shows but it got had a guy on here by the name of Damon trampoline is the only person in my life is able maybe pass out from laughing and now that he knows he can do it, he strives to do it often in it. So
Rock Thomas 38:46
what a great What a great intention to have.
Rick A. Morris 38:50
Right? Yeah, he's gonna, it's gonna make me pass out I'm laughing so much. So what what are some of the speaking engagements or things that you may have coming up
Rock Thomas 38:58
so I speak a lot to Real Estate people mortgage mortgage individuals so I have an event in Ottawa, Canada, Canada coming up in January speaking to 200 real estate investors. And then I come back to here to Phoenix and speak to another small private group. We have about 25 events that we do a year. So I'll be speaking at our major one at the end of January and Aspen, you about 150 people, Ed milette will be there, etc. So there's ongoing little events there more private events, and then your events as well.
Rick A. Morris 39:30
Outstanding. Well, we're going to take our final break right here. We'll be right back with Ragtime I should listen to Rick Morris on the work life balance.
Unknown Speaker 39:41
When it comes to business, you'll find the experts here, voice America business network.
VoiceAmerica 39:48
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You are tuned into the work life balance. To reach Rick Morris or his guest today, we'd love to have you call into the program at 1-866-472-5790. Again, that's 1-866-472-5790. If you'd rather send an email Rick can be reached at our Morris at r squared consulting.com. Now back to the work life balance.
Rick A. Morris 41:27
And we're back for our final segment of the work life balance on this Friday afternoon with rock Thomas rock, we're going to ask you a question we ask all of our guests. It's a maximalism you know, generally we he coaches us to have two questions that we ask everybody one is Who do you know that I should know which I love that question. But the second question in one that we ask on this show is what some of the best advice you've ever received.
Rock Thomas 41:51
You know, I think that a lot of times, people don't know how to do something and they they miss opportunities. And if if people could seize the indies that I think that they would have a much richer life in so many ways. So I would say this is begin to get super clear on what you want so that when it shows up, you can say yes. and figure it out later. I remember I was going on a plane, bout to go home from an event and this buddy of mine asked me if I wanted to go on his private jet and complete golf and Austin, I said, Yes. Even though I had to cancel things I was working on on the plane. We started talking about an option. He had to go to LA the next day and get on Celebrity Apprentice, and he goes, What do you think I should do? And they said, I think you should do it because you want a cup? And I said, Yes, yeah. So we got on the plane. The next day, we flew there and we got on Celebrity Apprentice, and we had Muhammad Ali's daughter there, boy, George, we brought in $41,000 cash and we brought in in a briefcase and we made a scene and so I got a minute on on what was Donald Trump's of the apprentice and the next day we were wondering what we should do. And they said, We want to play golf. And I said, I know this really good golf course in Mexico. My daughter is dating the son of a billionaire. And I can probably get us on it. And so they said, Yes, called the pilot started the plane. And we flew down there. And we actually got to play with this billionaire and hang out and have lunch with him. And what I learned when you're around entrepreneurial, successful people, they don't need to know the how. They just need to know why. Yeah. And the average person is so stuck on the how the what, I don't know what to do. I don't know how to do it. Soon. The most successful people think who Richard Branson thinks, who's going to run my next company doesn't go, how does it work? He doesn't care how it works. He just cares who's going to run it. So the big thinkers think who and they think yes, and they'll figure out the details later. That's some of the best advice I've gotten. That's why I have 35 streams of income. I'm financially free and I can help a lot of people, because they just keep on saying yes to things that are bigger than me.
Rick A. Morris 44:07
It couldn't, couldn't agree more I did some of the greatest things in in my life is from from me volunteering or saying yes or or being a part of it is so I couldn't agree more with that. That advice. What about how do people get in touch with you? How do they find you? And how do they find all this wonderful stuff that you're doing?
Rock Thomas 44:26
Well, the podcast is called the I am movement. And I'm excited about that have interviewed some really great people like Robert herjavec kin, and a whole bunch of other really great thought leaders. And they can always go to rock Thomas calm, which is my website. And there, they'll see a bunch of different things, including access to my masterminds or my products, events, etc. and on social media, I mean, if you google me or social media, you'll find me very easily so it's pretty easy to find rock Thomas.
Rick A. Morris 44:53
And so what any final thoughts for the audience before we wrap up for today?
Rock Thomas 44:58
Yeah, I would say that one of the things that I've learned the most is that nothing in life has meaning but the meaning that we give it. And we get to show up and be the color commentator of that event to give it the story that we want. I remember once having, you know, I lost all my hair to a disease called Allah patient when I was 40. And I didn't know what meaning to give it. A lot of people wanted to give it the meeting, I was sick, are you dying, the cancer, what's going on? And I felt really insecure for about three weeks until I learned what it was. And then I asked this question, what's great about this, and when you ask that question, because we're attention goes, energy flows and results show. So if you ask a question of what's great about a flat tire or missing your flight or losing your hair, your brain has to answer it and you know this, you know, being in personal development. Don't answer this question. anybody listening? Don't answer this question two plus two. Brain answered it. So our brain will answer any question we ask it. So it's so crucial. Important to ask a quality question. And what's great about this, the rest directs you to what is good, or what is possible. So I never have a bad hair day. I don't have my shampoo. I, I can save money from haircuts. And so when I started to ask that question and come up with all these answers, I started to feel good about alopecia versus bad. And I started to talk to my Greek buddy who gets his hair removed and creates pain, he spends a lot of money on it. And we used to laugh he goes, dude, I want alopecia to how do I get?
Why do I sign up?
Rick A. Morris 46:38
So I think that's a fantastic perspective.
Rock Thomas 46:41
Nothing has meaning but the meaning we give it life is happening for you, not to you, and the moment you can most rapidly accept that embrace it, and realize that everything's a teacher. I think the more joyous you will be in your life,
Rick A. Morris 46:57
it's a choice. I mean, it's it's a choice and handling. But the have those that constantly blaming that boy when I'm around people that just blame everything else everybody it just sucks the energy out of me it's not some some place I want to be I don't want to be anywhere around that kind of stuff but in you know it's almost a speech that I give my kids is like, you know oh he made me angry it's like nobody can make you angry you chose to get angry, but nobody can make you angry I can I can spar with the best of them and not ever get angry. I think it's hilarious.
Rock Thomas 47:29
When was the last time that you were caught in traffic or some buddy metaphorically was caught in traffic and you are very angry because you were caught in traffic could be late for an appointment. And then all the cars in front of you. Oh, the guy behind us he's mad. Please move aside lead him through the happen. So dad or credit or angry doesn't change the traffic. So put on the CD. Listen to Rick listen to his show while you're stuck in traffic, sit back, breathe and accept what you Have you find your life a lot better
Rick A. Morris 48:03
than you used to be I I started from stage but I am a guy that'll go ahead and get over when you're supposed to kind of follow the rules and the people that would come up and cut you off at the last second I used to get really angry at that I used to go through my head rack would be does that person think that they're more important than me? And that would fire me up and let's just let's just take the absurdity of that statement. Right. He's like, No, I'm not more important in that person. On this I'm not more know. There's Rick Morris way more important than him. That's the person I'm going to cut out on me. Come on, let's just it's so absurd. But I used to be the guy to get angry at that. Now. I don't. It's like, whatever. That's what you want to do. That's fine.
Rock Thomas 48:42
And that's personal development in a nutshell is becoming conscious of the questions we ask ourselves, upgrading those questions, having better perceptions, better choices, and then living on an emotional plane. That is better give up frustration and disappointment for grace and gratitude.
Rick A. Morris 48:59
That's beautiful. I think that's where we ended rapidly. We appreciate you joining the show. Thank you so much for coming on. We gotta get you back.
Rock Thomas 49:06
Yeah, well, thank you so much. We totally appreciate you and have a an amazing 2020
Rick A. Morris 49:11
YouTube. And so, next week we're gonna have Jamie bechler. So Jamie's been on our show a couple of times, you can go research, search his name on the work life balance web page, but he's got a new book that he's just dropped. So we love having Coach bechler on the show and look forward to having another conversation with him. So that's who we're going to have on January 10, January 17. We're going to do a replay and then the 24th. We have Mark given who's going to be joining us as well. So a lot of great guests coming up a lot of good stuff to talk about. Stay right here on this channel for some other fantastic shows up right here on The Voice America network. And we'll talk to you next Friday right here.
VoiceAmerica 49:55
Thank you for joining us this week. The work life balance with Rick Morris can be heard live Every Friday at 2pm pacific time and 5pm eastern time on The Voice America business channel. Now that the weekend is here, it's time to rethink your priorities and enjoy it. We'll see you on our next show.
